1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the operation of a consumer matching service. Specifically, the invention relates to a system for matching a consumer with those businesses that are most likely to provide the experiences, events, services or products which will bring the most satisfaction to the consumer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Online consumer matching services seek to match consumers with service providers. The techniques utilized to create these matches often depend on the development of a database of service providers in which a key component of these databases is a ranking of the various service providers according to information accumulated by the matching service on the satisfaction levels of some of the prior users of the service providers. Other than typical consumer profile information (e.g., name, address, phone number) and general purchasing requirements (services sought, pricing sensitivities, geographic considerations, general preferences—e.g., “American style”, “Italian,” “Classical”), little further information is collected by the matching service from the consumer. In addition, the matches typically are one-to-one and match a consumer preference with a direct attribute of the service provider or business.
There is a significant level of consumer feedback on many of these matching services which suggests widespread dissatisfaction with many of their matches. This result is often attributed to the fact that the number of prior users contributing to a service provider's ranking is too small and therefore not a representative sample of all of a service provider's prior customers or users. Also, “user reviews” and “comments” often are biased, or the particular preference of the reviewer is not made apparent to the consumer. Accordingly, there is a need for improved consumer matching services.